Fran Luckin is the CCO of VML.
The reason it’s a glass ceiling is because it looks like it’s not there. Based on what I’ve heard in conversations with many women over the past year, I don’t think the glass ceiling is gone at all.
Maybe a place to start is to reframe our thinking around it 99the glass ceiling]]. Perhaps if we stop thinking of it as a glass ceiling because that implies something that is just there, somehow beyond our control.
Concepts are powerful in the way they can shape our thinking and actions. If we think of it as a glass door instead of a ceiling, perhaps, then we’ve got a metaphor that has agency built into it.
A door can be opened, from either side. It reframes the notion, so that we acknowledge that unconscious biases and barriers exist - but by being aware of them we can work to make sure we open the door. (If that seems trite, then consider the global impact on humanity’s thinking that resulted from coining the simple phrase “climate change.”)
Siyamthanda Yokwe is the content director at VML
What attracted you to the industry?My attraction to the industry was purely by divine intervention, in other words just like every other suppressed creative whose parents wanted them to do a “serious” degree, I didn’t find advertising, advertising found me.
There was a pop-up banner inviting people to join a free creative school called Umuzi Academy. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened the website, an opportunity to get paid to learn how to make a career as a writer? I took the risk, didn’t register for the semester and took the opportunity to become a creative, the rest is history.
Being a woman in advertising has been quite the ride.
On the one hand, women leadership is such a norm in most agencies that I never really have to deal with bruised male egos when I’m the only woman in the room. On the other hand, we work with some clients in corporate environments who have not adjusted as well to a black woman leading the battle.
I never came in with any expectations as to how I would be received as a woman, but it does not shock me how some corporate clients will openly undermine you as a woman until your white male counterpart agrees with your idea.
Another thing that leaves a bit of an uncomfortable feeling in my heart is the tendency for women to be treated as mere checkboxes in the room when it comes to judging for awards. While progress has been made, there is still a significant distance to cover on the path toward equality.
What makes me smile is my fellow women in advertising have proven to be the most supportive people I have come across in life. As a woman, when you find a female friend in advertising, you find a sister.
I’ve never known love the way my closest fellow girlies in agencies show me love. If a survey were conducted to determine the industry with the highest number of colleagues actively participating in each other’s personal life events such as weddings, birthdays and even funerals, this industry would be top 5 and not five.
